Number Six
by SophStratt
Summary: What if Aaron hadn't met Peter Boyd, or Number Three, up in the log cabin in Alaska? What if Marta Shearing had died in the lab attack? Things would be different. Aaron meets Agent Six, or Dr Eliza Taylor, one of the scientists who'd worked on the chems, before she was turned into a unwilling killing machine. Eliza and Aaron fight for the answers they want, and a life they deserve.
1. My name is Eliza

3rd Person P.O.V

After months of being alone in the tiny log cabin, freezing her butt of for days, living off of rations and religiously reading the events of the outside world on her stolen computer, the woman was now sat in her birds' nest, watching as the strange man in the bright red coat trampled through the snow, obviously heading towards her 'home'.

She saw his face. She wondered what it would look like without all the facial hair, because the normal female woman inside her was telling her he looked hot, and that she should naturally be attracted to him. Back in the day, when she was just a genius scientist bent on curing the world's incurable diseases, she would have gone for him. He was a rugged type of handsome, not the kind you'd see in magazines or in movies. But now, after her smart mouth had gotten her experimented on and turned into an agent, she was calculating how long it would take for her to take him down in a hand-to-hand fight, or whether she should just shoot him and then leave his body for the wolves.

"Are you going to pretend you don't know I'm here?" She called down to him, as he was walking past the tree she was perched in.

"I was just trying to be polite."

She rolled her eyes, and jumped down, landing perfectly on her feet. The man turned round to face her, his eyes immediately drinking her in, and then scrutinising her weapon.

"I wasn't expecting you so soon. What did you do? Come over the mountain?" She asked him, taking a couple of steps forward, slinging her rifle over her shoulder.

"Don't they forward my position?" The man asked.

The woman smirked.

"You beat the record by two days."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. You didn't know there was a record?" She asked him, unsurprised. They never told anyone anything they didn't 'need' to know.

"No. It never came up. Wasn't your record, was it?" He asked, a smirk on his face.

"No one comes over the mountain." She replied, not answering his question. It was her record. She'd taken the long way round, because that was what she was told, and she wouldn't disobey orders. She knew where disobeying orders got her.

"Well I did. I'm Aaron, by the way." He said, smiling at her.

"Why did you do that? If you weren't on the clock, why take the risk? Why take the mountain?" She asked, ignoring his attempt to be 'chummy' with her. She never exchanged names with the others. She wouldn't start now, just because she found him attractive. She thought if they had met in a different situation, in a different place, before she was made into this killing machine, she would have charmed him, and they'd be sleeping together by the time night came.

Aaron hesitated before answering the woman's questions.

"I lost my chems. I dropped my program kit, that's why."

Mentally, she called bullshit. She frowned at him, and walked past him without saying a word. Aaron watched her walk away from a second, before following her to the cabin.

She put her gun back with the others, which were lined up against one wall, and started taking off the layers she didn't need anymore, starting with her gloves. She heard Aaron in the doorway, but ignored his presence for a few seconds. No one had been here in months, but her. She'd have to get used to sharing her space again.

"Protocol is for me to call in your arrival," She said, as Aaron closed the door behind him. She removed her hat, and shook out her long blonde locks, then removed her coat. "They're going to want a sample pick-up. You got blood work, right?"

"I owe today." Aaron answered her, as he started to shed his own gloves, hat and coat.

"Alright, pull it now. The drone takes about three hours to get up here so I'll get some food started. You can dry your shit." She said, moving around the room, picking up the necessary equipment to prepare a meal.

"So…look. I got a real problem, here. I came over that mountain because I lost my chems."

The woman sighed, and turned to him.

"What are you taking?" She asked, seemingly exasperated by the man and his drug addict-like behaviour, but she knew what happened when you haven't taken your chems in a while.

"My daily? Phys meds, 250 green. Cognitive programs, 400 blue." He replied.

"Define 'lost'." She said, leaning against a counter, a look of distrust on her face.

"Lost. Fell into the rocks off a 20-meter cliff. Lost." Aaron snapped the last word, getting slightly agitated at the look on the woman's face. Sure, she was beautiful, had pretty eyes, and a mouth that made him want to kiss her, but the look made him want to hit something.

"How is that possible?"

"Look, I've had a pack of wolves on my ass since I left the drop, okay? I thought I lost them, but they came at me at the river, so I took the ledge up to the ravine to try to rally out the night," Aaron said, trying to ignore the woman's sigh, as she knew it was a stupid move. "I chose wrong. I got caught out in the open, I couldn't climb. I couldn't make a fire, my hands got stiff. I dropped them."

The woman straightened up a little, shrugging her shoulders, still not believing him.

"You're gonna have to write that up." She replied, a look of innocence on her face that didn't reflect the smug tone she said it in. It was one that clearly said 'I'm glad I'm not in your shoes'. Aaron chuckled.

"So is that yours?" Aaron asked.

The woman tilted her head in confusion.

"Hmm?"

"The blood work?" Her eyes flickered over to the vials of blood that were on another counter. "That's yours, isn't it? You're not a contact, are you?"

The woman didn't answer. She turned away from him, and began preparing Aaron some food, hoping he'd shut up soon.

"Look, I'm sorry to call you out like that. It's just that…I've never met anybody in the program before," Aaron said. She gave him a quick glance before she tend to the fire, adding another couple of logs to make sure it was hot enough to cook their meal on. Aaron continued talking. "Never, nobody. You're the…"

Aaron trailed off when he noticed the woman was purposefully ignoring him, as she placed another log in the fire.

"Look, I know you have some extra chems here." Aaron said.

"I'm not supposed to ration you out until you leave tomorrow." She answered.

"Yeah."

"Did you chem today?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Green only. I haven't had a blue in 32 hours." Aaron replied.

The woman looked at him, her gaze hard for a second, before she closed the fire, and stood up.

"Stay here. I'll go get you some extra chems."

"Thank you."

"I wouldn't do this, if it weren't for the fact that the last idiot who lost his chems and didn't have a blue beyond 32 hours flipped. Needless to say, They weren't happy when they had to send a plane to collect the guy's body."

Aaron looked at her, wondering if that was the woman's attempt at humour, but he could find no sign of it in her expression, only a warning. Her eyes pretty much said 'attack me and you'll die', so Aaron stepped out of her way, as she walked out, pulling a set of keys out of her pocket as she left.

Aaron watched her from the window as she dug around in the metal locker outside, looking for the blue chems. He knew that the blood work was hers. She was an agent, like him. Yet she didn't look like what he thought another agent would look like. Physically, yes. He could tell that under the thick jumper she was wearing was some pretty impressive muscle. Mentally, no. She seemed too intelligent for an agent. Her eyes showed an understanding that he knew his didn't.

When she came back, she handed him the chems, before walking back to the fire, setting up for their meal.

"You'll get rationed tomorrow too. In case, you manage to 'drop' them again."

And in that instant, he felt like she knew he'd been lying and knew that he had to find out more about this mysterious woman.

Three hours later, the drone arrived and the woman had already boxed up all the blood work and labelled it. She shrugged on her coat again, and pulled on her hat and gloves, and trudged towards the small white drone, that could almost blend in with the snow.

She opened the compartment, and placed the blue box in it, closing it and stepping back next to Aaron, who had followed her out. They watched in silence as the drone flew away with their blood work. The woman turned back first, and Aaron stood there for a few seconds, before once again following her back to the cabin.

It was dark now, and everywhere was quiet, apart from Aaron quietly eating, as the woman sat opposite him, taking apart a hand gun and cleaning.

When a wolf's howl interrupted the quiet, the woman gave Aaron an amused smile as he looked up from his bowl of stew, in the direction the howl came from.

"Your friends are here." She said, the smile still on her face.

"I know," Aaron replied, still looking out the window, before he turned his eyes towards the woman. "Don't you think that's strange? The wolves? They don't do that. They don't track people."

"Yeah. Maybe they don't think you're human." She said, taking her eyes off her gun, and looking at him, before taking a bite of her own bowl of food. She put the pieces of gun down on her lap, and began eating with him.

"So, how many of us are there?" Aaron asked her.

Her eyes locked with his, but she took another mouthful before replying.

"You ask too many questions."

"Maybe you don't know, either," Aaron muttered. The woman's mouth twitched, as she fought off a smile. She knew how many. She just wouldn't be the one to tell him, until she was sure he could be trusted. "So what are you doing up here, anyway?"

She shook her head, and grinned.

"How do you know that I'm not evaluating you?" She asked him, sitting up straighter, and leaving her half finished meal, to put her gun back together again.

"I don't know. Are you?" Aaron countered. "Maybe I don't care. Do you ever not care?"

The woman hesitated, scrutinising the man sitting in front of her, her eyes taking in every slight movement he made.

"Maybe you're the one evaluating me." She said.

"I went off the grid for four days, that's why I'm here. I skipped my check-in. Now I'm on this bullshit scavenger hunt." Aaron told her. She was sure that he only told her that to try and gain her trust.

"They'll have their reasons."

"Yeah, well…I thought I was having my wrist slapped, but now I'm not so sure. I'm still trying to figure out whether you're supposed to kill me or give me a pep talk." Aaron said, before sipping some of the hot chocolate she'd made to keep them warm.

She grinned at him.

"I don't give pep talks, and this coming from me is weird if you knew me before this, but you think too much." She shook her head at him, and he smiled back at her.

"Aren't we wired to stick our nose in, you and I? There's not another person for 300 miles. I know nobody's listening. Come on, you've got to give me something. Talk to me, come one!" Aaron said, his voice getting slightly louder as his begging continued. The woman just looked at him amused. "Why'd they pull you off the field and put you up here? It's not physical, with the way you've been moving, so what did you do? Turn down an assignment? Start thinking for yourself? Fall in love?"

The last one made the woman's eyes flash, and Aaron knew he'd found the reason she was here.

"You fell in love."

"You're not very perceptive. My eyes flickered in remembrance, but not because I fell in love. I was remembering what love felt like. And it wasn't because I started thinking for myself or because I turned down an assignment. I always thought for myself, and I turned down one too many assignments, so here I am, in my log palace," She grinned again, and pushed the gun across the table. "This one is better for wolves. There's an ammo box by the door. Take as much as you need. We're done talking. You ate, you're pulling out early, you should hit it."

The woman got up, and picked up their bowls, putting them in the sink.

"Okay. Some other time, then."

"Yeah."

"Thanks," Aaron said, looking at the woman, who refused to look at him. She scrubbed far too aggressively for the bowls, probably angry for revealing what she had.  
"I've got one more question before I go."

The woman shook her hands, before drying them on a piece of cloth beside her, and then turned around.

"What?" She asked, an expectant look on her face.

"Where're you from originally?"

"Canberra, Australia. My accent didn't give too much away, did it? You'd better get some rest. If you still feel like asking a lot of annoying questions, save it for tomorrow. I'll consider answering a few of them."

Aaron smiled at her, before turning away to go to the bed she'd given him for the night.

His sleep was short lived. The light above his face was switched on, waking him instantly. He blinked twice before he recognised the blonde haired beauty leaning over him.

"Get up. You want answers. You're about to get them," She said, before she straightened up, and moved away from him, and out of the room. Aaron noticed that she was fully dressed, wearing her blue winter coat, and her black woolly hat. "Don't just lay there, and stare at me, Agent. Get your arse up and moving. Unless you fancy a bullet in your head or to be blown to little pieces. Get your gear, and be ready to leave in twenty minutes. I've got weapons ready. We're moving out."

Aaron jumped to his feet, and pulled his coat on. He was already wearing most of his clothes, just not the outerwear. He grabbed his backpack, and his sniper, and pulled them onto his back. And after pulling on his hat, he left the room.

He saw her sorting packs of blue chems into a small bag, before she closed it, and chucked it towards him.

"Those are for you, as is that Glock 26, and all that ammo on the table. My bag is already packed. I'll answer your questions once we're gone."

"Where are the green chems?"

"You don't need them. Don't ask any follow up questions, just trust me." She said.

"How can I trust you? I don't even know your name! Why are we leaving?" Aaron demanded, putting all the stuff she'd laid out for him on the table in his pack.

"Because I don't fancy waiting around to die. When they sent me up here, I managed to steal a laptop. I'm good with computers and made sure that they can't trace my signal. Four Outcome Agents died suddenly today, all around the same time. Me and you, we're the last ones. They're burning the program to the ground, and getting rid of all evidence. Including you and me. I'm not going to die because they can't deal with the fucking consequences of creating the program in the first place." She ranted, as she grabbed her sniper of the wall and slung it onto her back.

"Why did you wake me up? Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm not stupid, and I know you'll make me a very powerful ally." She replied, looking him in the eyes.

Aaron looked at her, until they both heard a very faint whirring sound.

Her head snapped towards it, then back to him.

"We've got to get out now. My tracker is currently residing in the rat that is in the cage on the chair you sat in last night. We'll get yours out once this place has been blown up." The woman said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out of the door.

Aaron would have fought to get out of her grip, but he saw her urgency, and didn't think to stop her. They got to the tree line when a missile blew the cabin up. The blast sent the pair flying backwards, and left a high-pitched ringing in their ears.

They struggled to their feet, grunting in pain, but both stood as they saw the same drone plane from the night before fly over the charred remains of the log cabin.

"Eliza." She said.

Aaron looked at the woman in confusion, wondering if the blast had affected her mental capabilities.

"My name is Eliza. Now we've got to go. Your chip is still active and they'll want to terminate it. Let's move." Eliza ordered, her grey eyes glinting like steel. Aaron smiled slightly, but it was gone quickly, as they both ran into the trees.


	2. In America, we say ass

Eliza's P.O.V

We'd run for a long time, until we reached a high point. Aaron took off his coat, while I pulled out a metal plate in his bag, and held it above where the tracker was, and helped him tape it to him to cut off the signal. It would buy us some time to get to somewhere I could cut it out for him, and it would also attract the drone to our current location so we could blow it up.

"I'll set up the rifle, you put your coat back on." I told him, pulling out my sniper rifle, and attaching the scope to it. I laid down in the snow, lining up my shot, looking down the scope for my target. As soon as it was in my sights, I fired. And again.

"Nice shot." Aaron complimented me, as he watched the drone, now on fire and billowing smoke behind it, crash into a hill opposite us, as I detached the scope and took out the ammo cartridge and put the gun away again.

"They'll be sending a second drone once Byer is there. They'll trace the signal, know its you, and they'll send the second drone to finish up. We should go back. They didn't blow the second shed. I'll cut you open, pull out the chip, and we'll plant it in one of your wolf friends." I said, pulling my pack back onto my back.

Aaron nodded, and we were running once again.

We were in the shed. Aaron had taken off his coat, and lifted his shirt for me, and I looked at him.

"You're not going to be a pain in the arse, and flinch when I make the first incision, are you?" I joked, as I pressed the scalpel down, a red line being left in my path. His face winced, but then he just wordlessly handed me the tweezers.

I took them, handing him the scalpel in exchange, and then pushed the tiny wound apart with my index finger and thumb, making it a little wider, so I could see what I was doing. I pushed the tweezers in, and found the little caplet shaped tracker and pulled it out for him to see.

"Take this. Put it somewhere while I finish up." I ordered, grabbing a needle and thread to stitch him up.

"You're good at this. What did you do before the program?" Aaron asked, as I tied off the first stitch, before starting on the second.

"I was a doctor and a scientist. I had PhDs in biology, and doctorates in virology and chemistry. I wanted to help the world. Cure incurable diseases. So I joined Outcome, and helped them create the chems, but when I saw what they were being used for…to create soldiers, and not to save lives, like I thought, they used my work against me. I became Outcome's best agent, until they created a different program. They wanted to improve upon my scores. I don't see how there could be a better version of the best, but I digress," I smiled up at him, as I tied off the third and final stitch, and taped a bit of gauze on top of the closed wound. "We're done."

"I've been wondering how you're going to get this chip into the wolf." Aaron said, as he put his coat back on.

"Oh, I'm not. You are."

Aaron looked at me confused, as I just smiled at him.

I sat in my tree, armed and waited for the arrival of Aaron's wolves. He was sitting on the ground, up against a tree opposite me, drops of his blood strategically placed around him to attract them.

A wolf's howl fills the air, and a smile tugs on my lips. Aaron shoots me a dirty looks as though he can tell I'm fighting off a smile.

He looks around for the approaching pack, and we spot the first wolf at the same time. It stalks forward, moving up from my rear, and I heard a growl. The wolf bares its teeth at Aaron, and I watch as Aaron's hands moves towards the little piece of wood that will spring our trap. The wolf pounces, Aaron pulls hard on the trigger, and the wolf is suspended upside in the air. I shoot at the other wolves, scaring them off, before I hop down from my tree, and help Aaron hold the wolf down as he forces the tracker down its throat.

Then we shove the wolf away, but it bares its teeth at us.

"You should have left me alone." Aaron says to it, as we hear the drone closing in. We take off in the opposite direction to the wolf, and get a good distance away, before we're knocked on our arses again by the blast.

I groan at the heavy weight on me, and open my eyes to see Aaron's face.

"Get off me or I'll shoot you in the foot." I threatened, while we both knew it was just an empty threat. I needed him in top physical shape.

Aaron chuckled, but got up, then offered a hand to me. I took it and he hauled me to my feet.

"Where to now, Eliza?" He asked, a smirk on his face.

"I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of this cold."

I don't regret saving Aaron's life. Especially since he can fly a plane. I never really had time to, but I think I made a very attractive co-pilot. He flew us to the outskirts of a city, and then we had to get a bus to the inner city.

A bus! Two agents, who could kill almost all the people on this bus within about two minutes, on a bus. I had tried not to laugh. Aaron raised his eyebrow at me, as I tried to hide my amused grin by staring down at the jumper I was wearing.

"What's so funny?" He murmured.

"I can't believe we're on a bus!" I replied, quietly.

"Have you never ridden a bus?" Aaron asked.

"No. I used to own a car. Where are we going?" I questioned, almost whining at him.

"To get a car."

"Good. I'm driving. The whole passenger thing is fucking boring. I'm considering drawing on that guy's face for some entertainment." I said, pointing at the sleeping middle-aged builder, with a beer gut and pit stains.

Aaron smiled at me, while shaking his head.

"You spent however many months up in a log cabin, isolated from the rest of the world, and you're acting as if this was the most bored you've been in a long time. That's weird. You're weird."

"I had things to do up there! I had my computer, or the radio, or my guns. I wasn't lacking entertainment. Especially when nosy, bearded men who ask too many questions came to stay. Have I told you how much better you look without the beard?"

"No, but thanks, I think."

"You're lucky that we met post-Outcome. Before if we had met, I would have totally hit this by now." I said, gesturing to him.

"Seriously?" He asked, turning his body towards mine, as though I'd captured his full attention.

"Yeah. You would have been exactly my type. You still are. I just won't sleep with you." I replied, with a grin.

He narrowed his eyes at me, I assume playfully, and pulled my baseball cap down in front of my eyes. I scowled at him, pulling it back up, and nudging him with my shoulder as a tame sort of revenge. He rolled his eyes, but doesn't move back to how he was sitting before. We just look at each other.

"You two make a good looking couple." An old woman said, from the seat across from ours. We'd been speaking in mutters and whispers so no one would have heard what we'd been saying, but we still looked up at her and assessed whether or not she had heard snippets of our conversation.

I was about to protest, and say that there was no way that me and Action Man were a couple, but Aaron cut me off.

"Thank you." He said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I looked at him, my eyes hardening slightly, but I leaned into him to play along with the charade.

"How long have you two been dating?" She asked.

Why is she so nosy? Is she Aaron's grandmother? He's nosy as hell too.

"Two years. Tomorrow is our anniversary." Aaron lies coolly. I smile, and place my hand on his thigh, and dug my nails in, just a little bit, enough for him to know I was pissed, but not enough for him to show any signs of pain.

"A man who remembers his anniversary is a keeper. You hold on to him, young lady." She advises me, smiling at us.

"I wouldn't dream of letting him go." I replied, through a forced smile and gritted teeth.

She nods, and turns round to talk to her husband, and I take my hand off of Aaron's leg, but his arm doesn't remove itself from my shoulders.

I look at him expectantly.

"What? I'm comfortable, besides she could look over, and it would look suspicious if there was suddenly a lot of space between us again." Aaron reasoned.

I leaned into him again, resting my head on his shoulder as I rolled my eyes and placed a hand on his chest. From an outsider's perspective, we looked like an ordinary couple, very much in love and wrapped up in each other. No one would guess that we were agents, playing a role, and were very capable of killing someone.

"I think you just want me close to you. I wouldn't blame you if you did. I've been told that I'm quite cuddly. Or was. I used to be. I don't think I've let anyone this close for at least five or six years."

"Same here."

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"You thought hugging me would be bad?" Aaron asked, incredulously.

"No. Just thought it would complicate things that shouldn't be complicated. But I've always loved complicated."

We eventually end up by in a car park somewhere in Chicago. Aaron moves like he's got a purpose, and finds the car he spoke about on the bus. We quickly jack it open, and Aaron takes off the skirting on the left hand side passenger door, revealing different license plates, wads of cash, different passports, wallets, purses, and a gun with extra ammo.

I hold the flashlight, keeping it pointed at the car door, as he pulls all of this out and chucks most of it onto the back seat. I sit down in the driver's seat, and open the sun visor, hand out waiting to catch the keys. I start the car, as Aaron gets in. He looks at me, his looking up under his baseball cap. I smile at him, as I reverse out of the spot, and start driving towards the exit. Aaron takes one of his blue chems, before he speaks again.

"So where are we going now?"

"Maryland. We need to find Dr Marta Shearing. She's been my contact at the lab. I set her up with another untraceable laptop, so we could communicate. She'll help us find some answers." I answer his question.

Me and Marta had become friends while we'd worked together on Outcome, though when I was removed, we became allies too. She'd help me gather information to shut Outcome down. While she appreciated the science, and had no real objections to treating these men and women as test subjects, things changed when it became me that she was testing on. She became disillusioned with Outcome, so offered me her help.

"Can we trust her?"

"I've trusted her with my life before. I see no problem with doing it again." I answered, as I peeled out, wanting badly to just speed down the street, but not wanting to attract attention, so I just stuck to the boring speed limit.

Aaron nodded, and then asked me a question I'd been waiting to hear again.

"Why am I not taking greens?"

"You were viralled off them eight months ago." I replied, as I turned at a junction.

"Viralled off?" Aaron questioned.

"Do you remember having a really bad fever, that practically crippled your body, until you fought your way out of it?"

"Yeah. That was because of them? They did that?"

"Yes. The physical changes to our bodies are permanent. They locked it in. You're not supposed to be taking greens. For eight months, you've been taking them. That was Their hook. Keeping us dependent."

Aaron stayed silent, probably because he was digesting this piece of information, or because he had nothing to say.

"Don't sweat it, Cross. You've got enough blue's to keep your mental faculties as sharp as a tack until we make a solid decision as to what we're going to do."

Aaron nodded again, and smiled at her, slightly. She smiled back, keeping her eyes on the roads in front of her.

It took us nine hours to drive to Maryland. The sole purpose of coming here was to find Marta, to get information from her, and maybe to tell her to take some vacation time or something; I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe.

But when we pit stopped at a petrol station, to fill up the tank, and grab some snacks, I saw a newspaper that had Marta's face on it.

Seven Dead in Lab Shooting

That was the title. I skimmed the words until it told me who'd died. Marta's name was on there. Dr Marta Shearing, deceased. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten in my head, trying not to cry. I placed the paper on the counter, along with two BLT sandwiches, two coffees, two bags of crisps, and a pack of gum. I handed the money over for the gas, let the man behind the counter keep the change, and then carried it all back to the car. Aaron was sat in his seat again, waiting for me. I wordlessly handed him his sandwich, and his coffee, before climbing into the driver's seat again, chucking my own food onto the back seat, my hunger forgotten.

I put the coffee in a cup holder, and handed him the newspaper, before I started up the ignition.

"She had information in her house. If we're lucky, They'll be too busy cleaning up their mess to have gone by her place to do a sweep of the place. We'll find out what we can and then we move on." I said, pulling away, my eyes not daring to move away from the road in front of me.

"I'm sorry." Aaron said.

"Why?"

"You were obviously close. I'd only met her 13 times for examinations, but you were friends."

"You and I, we don't have the luxury of having friends, Aaron." I snapped.

"But if we did, she would have been yours. And you lost her."

I didn't reply to him. I couldn't think of anything to say anyway. Marta Shearing shouldn't be dead. I should have been able to save her. I was this super human for a reason, right? I had enhanced physical and mental capabilities for a reason. I wanted to save people, They made me this way to 'protect' this country, and yet, I failed the last person I was close to. Marta was dead.

I parked the car about a mile down the road from Marta's house, at a little car park that I knew was off the grid. There were no cameras so there was no need for the baseball caps anymore. Aaron and I changed clothes, not really bothering to hide from each other. I stripped off the tank top I was wearing, exchanging it for a clean black one, swapping my dark jeans for a pair of blue jeans, but just replacing my black military style boots for another pair just like it. I shrugged a black leather jacket on, and tucked my guns into the back of my jeans.

"You ready?" Aaron asked me.

"Yeah. Let's go pilfer and raid through a dead woman's house." I grinned sarcastically at him, starting to walk in the direction of the trees, but his arm pulled me back.

"You don't have to go in there, you know. I'll go in alone." Aaron said, as I stared at him. I smiled at him, and placed a hand on his cheek, feeling a warmth in my stomach that hasn't been there for years. His eyes softened at the gesture, but made no move to move away from it.

"You're a good man, Aaron Cross, but Marta was my friend. And I'm an agent. I can't let things like this bother me. I've had to do it before. Break into someone's home, kill everyone inside, and then rummage through their possessions for what I want," I replied, stroking my thumb across his cheek bone. "I'm a killer and a scientist. Cold indifference is in my genetic coding. Let's go, get this done with, and then plan our next move."

Aaron nodded, and I let my hand drop from his cheek, before I started walking away. Aaron didn't follow me at first, so I turned and looked back at him, catching him doing something I didn't think I'd ever see.

"Aaron Cross, were you just checking out my arse?"

"In America, we say ass." Aaron replied, a smirk on his face. I laughed, and continued walking, exaggerating the sway in my walk.

"Mr Cross, if you don't hurry up, I'll put a bullet in your nice ass." I called back.

"You've been checking out my ass?" He said, as I heard him start jogging to catch up with me. When he made it to my side, I turned to him a flashed him a smirk.

"You're not the only one with eyes, Cross."

He chuckled.

We started running through the trees, our light moment forgotten as we put our agent heads back on and proceeded with our mission. Aaron had a more powerful stride than me, but I was lighter on my feet and quicker, so we were more evenly matched.

We reached the house in no time, and when we saw no cars on the drive, and saw no sign of life, we cautiously ventured into the house. I pulled out one of my guns, having it ready in case someone arrived, while Aaron tested the backdoor. To my surprise, it was unlocked.

"If she wasn't dead, I'd fucking kill her for not listening to me about security. This has to be the easiest place to break into. That woman is infuriating even from beyond the grave!" I hiss, as we step in. Aaron rolls his eyes at me.

"Where'd she keep the data?" Aaron asks, his own gun raised and ready to kill.

"Safe. It's in her room. You stay down here, find what you can, I'll go get it." I said, walking away from him to the staircase, gun still in hand, as I slowly made my way up them. The first thing in each room I walked into was my gun. A warning to anyone who could be lurking in there that I was armed, and would shoot.

Marta's bedroom was on the first floor, and I found it quickly. The safe wasn't behind a cliché painting, but was hidden in her wardrobe. It didn't have a pin lock, just a general lock. I pulled two hair grips from the pocket of my jeans, and quickly unlocked it.

Inside was a bunch of papers, that I quickly folded and tucked into the back of my jeans with my spare gun, some cash that I pocketed, Marta's spare I.D card which I took (it could come in handy), Marta's gun which I left, but then there was an envelope…with my name on it. I hesitated before reaching out and taking it.

I didn't open it, just stared at it, before I closed the safe, locked it back up, and went to find Aaron. He was in Marta's kitchen, looking in a cupboard. He turned and pointed his gun at me, before he lowered it, realising who it was.

"What's in the envelope?" He asked.

"A letter from Marta. I got the info-" I was cut off by the sound of a car. My eyes widened slightly, before I quickly moved into the cupboard with Aaron, and closed the doors behind us.

It was cramped, and I was pretty much squished right up against Aaron. There was so little space between us our foreheads were pretty much touching. We listened very closely as the door opened. A man and a woman were speaking, but there four sets of footsteps. Two pairs of footsteps were slightly heavier, so I assumed they were the hired muscle, just in case something went wrong.

The man and the woman speaking made their way into the kitchen, opening cabinets and cupboards. I looked at Aaron and he nodded. We waited until the man and woman were close. The man was so close his shadow appeared under the door. I nodded. Aaron raised his gun at the same time as me, and we burst out.

Aaron dealt with the man, while I slid across the floor, taking the woman's legs out from under her, before putting a bullet in her back. Aaron shot the guy twice, once in the leg and once in the neck. He was dead. But before, I could finish off the woman, the two goons who'd come with them, began shooting us from outside. I grabbed Aaron's hand, and we ran for cover, out of the kitchen, along Marta's conservatory, and then sliding back into the foyer.

We had cover for all of five seconds, before the woman started shooting at us. I fired once in her direction, before Aaron yanked me forward once more through Marta's empty living room, where we got shot at again by one of the goons, before we slid and flipped ourselves into a crawl space that looked like a storage basement.

We moved out of the way of the continued fire, and Aaron grabbed a fire extinguisher.

"What are you doing?" I mouthed to him, not wanting to even whisper, just in case I gave our position away.

"Conserving ammo." He mouthed back.

"_Gene_!" I heard a man yell.

"_Runners in the basement_." Was the reply Guy 1 received.

"_Go._"

I heard the thud as the guy dropped in, and crawled into a better cover position. Aaron was right beside me, fiddling around with the fire extinguisher and nails. Every tiny sound that Aaron made caused the guy to jump and twitch. He was nervous. I could hear his ragged, shallow breathing, and jerking movements. It made a smile spread on my face.

"_Connie_!" Guy 1 yelled.

"_To your right_."

The other two would wait upstairs, waiting to see if he would need assistance, or they'd continue their search of the house, figuring their guy would be able to handle it. It was most likely the latter.

The guy moved in range of Aaron's make-shift weapon, and Aaron fired. The nail whizzed through the air, and embedded itself into the guy's leg, making him cry out, and as quick as an angered cobra, Aaron struck. A struggle started, that led to a series of shots being aimed at the ceiling, before Aaron managed to get the guy on his back, and incapacitated him.

"Impressive." I whispered, standing up. Aaron put a machine on, to get their attention. Hopefully it would separate them. Divide and conquer. Then we made our way towards a hatch that let outside. Aaron, somehow managing to be perverted even in a tense moment like this, let me climb up first so he could stare at my butt.

When Aaron appeared, I was already scaling the side of the house. He spotted me and followed suit, watching which window I climbed through. I stepped out into the hallway, gun raised and headed to the staircase. Surely enough, there was just the woman left on this level. She twisted and spotted me, but I fired first. Two shots. She was down, leaving one guy left.

Aaron grabbed my hand, and we ghosted down the stairs, and into Marta's bedroom.

"Take my watch, and when you hear the guy reach the top of the stairs, wait for five seconds, and fire twice. I'll take him out." Aaron instructed me, handing me his watch, then holding his hand over mine.

"No fair. That means you've taken out three, to my one! And mine was a girl." I protested quietly.

"Deal with it. This plan will work." Aaron replied.

I sighed, and slid down the wall to wait. Aaron quickly ran across the hall and hid inside a cupboard. The house was too quiet now. My ears had gotten used to the gunfire, and the shouting, not to this eerie, graveyard-like silence.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and as soon as his foot hit the top stair, I consulted Aaron's watch, watching the second hand tick by slowly, counting five seconds. I pulled the trigger once, then twice. And then four more shots fired off, before a small burst of gunfire was heard, and then a thud as the guy dropped dead.

"Hey, Liza? I need my watch." I heard Aaron call, as I climbed to my feet.

I walked out of Marta's room, and Aaron was down the hall, making sure my kill was dead. I scowled at that. Of course she was dead. I don't tend to miss.

"Okay, we have less than eight minutes to clear out of here, okay? Because the next thing to come through that door is going to wipe us out." Aaron said, as I approached him.

"I need to go back to the kitchen. I dropped my letter. Start dousing the bodies and walls and everything. I'll light it up. I've got the info. I'll put it into a bag from Marta's room," I replied, already running down the stairs. "Move like you've got a purpose, Cross!"

I could hear Aaron's bark of laughter, as I headed into the kitchen to the cupboard we had hid in before. My envelope was right there on the ground. I picked it up, and quickly stuffed it into a pocket on the inside of my jacket, before grabbing the radio of the guy, and pushing into my jeans pocket.

I grabbed a tank of kerosene and doused the bottom floor with it, joining Aaron, when the radio crackled into life.

"Can I get a sit-rep, here?" I looked at Aaron, and tossed the radio to him. "If you can hear me, pick up, Larry."

I gestured to him furiously, and he nodded, clicking the talk button, and took a breath before speaking.

"Hey, sorry about the tran." Aaron said, speaking in a voice, almost freakishly similar to 'Larry's'.

"What's our frame-rate, here?"

"Connie says about 10. Just wrapping up."

"Tell her we need a heads-up, okay?"

"Copy that." Aaron replied, wiping the speaker on his jacket to remove his trace, before dropping the radio onto the floor.

We walked to the back door again, and Aaron wordlessly handed me the lighter.

"She always said this place was a life suck," I said, sliding my thumb down the gear, the lighter's flame flickering into existence. I looked at Aaron, who nodded at me, so I turned and chucked it across the room, before turning away.  
"Guess she was right, huh?"

Aaron smiled at me, a comforting smile, and took my hand. I smiled gratefully at him, before I started to run.

We ran through the trees, ignoring the loud explosions behind us, the sounds of windows shattering, or the roof caving in, and just kept running.

As soon as we got to the car, I jumped into the passenger seat, tossing the keys to Aaron, letting him drive. The second the car had started, he pressed down hard on the gas, speeding away. I pulled the documents and my spare gun out of the waistband of my jeans, and placed the gun in the glove compartment. I started skimming through each sheet, digesting the information, trying to pick out the most important pieces.

Then I heard a siren wailing. I looked up at Aaron, and lowered the pages, running my hand through my hair as the fire engine zoomed past us, putting my arm in front of my face as an attempt to shield my identity. Aaron glanced at me after it had gone past.

"Where are we going?" I asked, dryly.

"June. June Monroe. Your name is June Monroe. Got it?" Aaron said, ignoring my question, as I continued looking through the documents that Marta had managed to steal or write or copy from the lab. I found a file on me.  
Six. No name. I was called Number Six.

"Got it. June Monroe. From Bethesda. June Monroe from Bethesda." I replied.

"If anyone asks, you lost your wallet, I'm driving you home. I'm James. James and June. Got it?" Aaron questions.

"Yes, Number Five, I've got it." I reply, skimming through Aaron's file.

"What?"

"Five. That's what Marta put down on your blood work. I was Six. A fucking number! The numbers Five and Six!" I exclaimed, a little bit pissed at my deceased friend. Seriously, Marta, a fucking number?

"Do you know how many times I met her? Thirteen. Thirteen exams over the past four years. And that's what I get, a number? Number Five. Okay," I let Aaron moan like a little girl. I was friends with her, and I still got a bloody number. "Five of what? How many were there? Is there any info on that?"

"There were nine. Then six. And now two." I said, reading the figures off of a document.

"Where do they keep the chems?" Aaron asked.

I skim through all the information, every page, and find nothing.

"I don't know. There's nothing here."

"You worked there. Where did they keep the meds?" Aaron barked at me.

"I don't know! If I knew I would have told you!" I snapped back.

"Bullshit. You just want to keep me hooked like they do! You've got the knowledge, and I have nothing, except your word! Where'd they keep the meds, Eliza?" Aaron yelled at me. I blinked in surprise, which quickly turned into fury.

"Stop the fucking car, Cross! I want to get out. Stop the car!" I shouted repeatedly, until he skidded to a halt on the hard shoulder just on the other side of a bridge.

"Get out. Go on. Get out. You don't have any more chems. You don't know where they are. You don't know anything. That's fine. Just get out," Aaron rambled, as I stared hard out of the window. "But you got a plan, right?"

I looked at him, pure anger on my face plain enough for him to see.

"All my plans involved you as my back-up. And you know that. I've been nothing but honest with you. You've asked me questions, and I've given you answers. That's more than anyone has done for either of us ever since we joined the fucking program," I hissed at him. "Now, you have to understand. All the work at Outcome, all those tests, the burn rates, dosage panels, tissue stress. That was us tuning chemistry. We didn't fabricate anything. That happened downstream."

"Wait. What's that mean, 'downstream'?" Aaron asked, looking at me, giving me his whole attention.

"It means you need live virus to seed adhesion. Cultures are highly reactive. You need to process on-site, and we never did it at the lab." I answered him.

"Okay. On-site, where? Where?"

"Where do we hold the virus?" I questioned, making sure my thoughts were in line with his.

"Yes!" Aaron snapped.

I glare at him again, but answer him anyway, despite him acting like an arse.

"Well, we can't drive there." I said, looking away from him.

"Where is it?" Aaron hisses.

"Manila. The Philippines." I snapped at him, until I see his face. He looks crest-fallen, like I've just told him some life-shattering news, which I had really. Aaron was running out of blues. I didn't need them. I'd already been viralled out on those. Did it myself.

Aaron climbed out of the car, and after his door had slammed shut, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, before following him out.

He was bent over the boot of the car, both of his hands gripping the edge, his head faced downwards. I slowly walked towards the back of the car, before leaning against the boot next to him, my hands in the pockets of my jeans.

"How much have you got left of your dosage?" I asked, my voice a million times softer than before.

"I have 300 milligrams of blues. It's not even enough for a full day," Aaron replied, straightening up, and moving to stand in front of me. He looked pissed. "You said they infected me. To lock in the physical enhancements? Who told you this was okay? You used to do this, right? Used to mess with our bodies, changing whatever you want?"

"I didn't-I designed, I surveyed. I didn't administer meds, or injections. You think I liked messing around with people? I only did the research. Did the math. Corrected mistakes. Until I saw what they were doing to you people, and then I blew up a fucking shit storm, okay? And they used my own research on me. Wanted to see what effect the blues and greens would have on someone already considered a genius and in a good physical shape," I replied, my voice shaking in places, but I managed to keep it steady and loud for the most part. "I never made policy!"

"No, you just helped load the gun." Aaron said.

"Oh, God," I whispered, walking away from him, back towards the front of the car. "Look. I was there for the science. Marta was there for science. We were all there for science. And I know you don't care, but at the time I thought I had made a huge sacrifice. I couldn't publish, I couldn't conference. I couldn't tell a single person what it was I did. I thought I was helping my country, trying to cure diseases that had been considered incurable, but I was lied to, okay?"

Aaron had obviously had enough of me trying to justify myself, and pushed me up against the car, trapping my body with his, and stared at me. I felt like we were back in that cupboard at Marta's again, as he'd left no space between us. I could feel every line of his body, just like he could probably feel every contour of mine.

"Tell me you can viral off blues. Can you viral off blues?"

"Yes. Why do you think I've not been taking them? That I let you have my rations too? Pills allow for temporary adhesion. To lock it in, you need live culture. Live virus!"

"You know how to do that? Do you know how to do that, Eliza?" Aaron demanded.

"Yes." I sighed, as he stepped back, and opened my car door.

"Okay." Aaron said, as he pushed me towards the door.

"I'm guessing that we're going to Manila, then." I said, letting him guide me.

"Of course, Doc. Of course that's where we're going."


	3. Music, sex, Kool Aid, science

We were still driving, and Aaron was having me explain how the virus worked.

"So, let's say you want to change the human body. You want to fix a mistake. You want to repair something, improve something," I said. Every so often, Aaron would take his eyes off the road to look at me, letting me know that he was still interested. "Well, if you're going to reprogram human genetic material, you need a delivery system, and nothing works better than virus. It's like a suitcase. You pack in genetic mutation, infect the body, and the vector unloads into the target cells. But getting it where you want it, how you want it, is the nightmare. Unless you have a map."

I paused for a second, thinking my next words through, trying to make them easy to understand.

"There was this terrible accident at Fort Detrick in 1985. Five researchers dropped dead in the lab, and it was such a catastrophe that they bought in Dan Hilcott from Stanford to assess the damage. He got in there and he realised that, underneath it all, was this incredible breakthrough in viral-receptor mapping. He had a map," I took a breath, before I continued. I'd not spoken this much in about eight months. "We've had minor alterations made to two different chromosomes. The green side, the physical side, is nothing more than a 1.5 percent rise in our mitochondrial protein uptake. But with 1.5 percent, you see this immediate increase in cellular tempo, muscle efficiency, oxygenation…"

"And the blue side?" Aaron cuts me off, taking his eyes off the road to look at me as he asks. I offer him a small smile.

"Intelligence, obviously, but it's more than that. It's neural regeneration and elasticity. Sensory function. Pain suppression. It's the most exciting development in genomic targeting in the history of the science." I answer.

Aaron and I exchange a look, and soon its over. I've explained everything, but I still had one more thing to say.

"Aaron…I am sorry for this. As exciting as the science was, as much as I thought I would be helping people…none of that excuses me from the damage I've caused, especially to you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Doc. I understand…well not all the science part, but your motivations."

I nodded, a small smile on my face. He might have forgiven me, but I sincerely doubt I'll ever forgive myself.

We finally stopped, staying in some hotel room near Kennedy airport.

I'd washed my hands and face, getting rid of the smell of kerosene and gun powder off my hands, but as I looked into the mirror while drying my hands, I tried to remember the person I was before Outcome. Not the person just before I became an agent, but the person before I even started working for Outcome as a scientist. The woman who would work on her second doctoral thesis after partying all night with her friends from the university, the woman who would go to the gym for an hour each night once most people had left, so she could work out in peace, the woman who would go to the shooting range each Saturday, because she wanted to be able to accurately shoot an attacker in case an event like that should occur.

I was so deep in my thoughts that Aaron almost snuck up behind me. Almost.

I looked at him, one corner of my mouth lifted up in a lopsided smile.

"Hey." He said, quietly.

"Hey."

"You okay?" Aaron asked, as we stared at each other through the mirror. The other corner of my mouth tilted up at his question and the look of concern on his face.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"The person before Number Six and Dr Eliza Taylor. You want something." I said, turning round to look at him, moving to lean against the other side of the door frame.

"You're going to want to go through this," He said, holding a purse out to me. "You know, just to be familiar with it."

I took the purse, and opened it, once again noting how little space there was between us, as we both leaned against the door frame.

"Who is June Monroe?" I questioned, looking down at the photo-less I.D card.

"You are." Aaron replied.

I glanced up at him, narrowing my eyes at him, looking through dark eyelashes at him.

"Do you know her?" I pushed, wanting information out of him. I'd shared. He hadn't.

He shook his head at me, miming no. Our eyes locked, and I saw a hint of sadness in his blue-grey ones.

"Not anymore."

He walked away, back into the room, but I stayed standing where I was.

"Why do you have to stay enhanced?" I asked, making him stop in the middle of the room. He looked back at me. "Why is it so important to you? I could slowly lower your dosage, that way you won't crash and go insane. Why do you need the enhancement?"

Aaron just stared at me a moment, then at the ground for a second, before he made his decision.

"Come here." He said, gesturing for me to follow him over to my laptop. I sat beside him, as his fingers flew across the keys, and a website called Fallen Heroes appeared. Aaron clicked on a picture, and it enlarged on the screen with information on how the serviceman had died and where. Then he slid the laptop so it was directly in front of me.

"What is this?" I asked, looking away from the screen to Aaron.

"This was me. Was," Aaron answered, not looking at me. "My army recruiter was looking to make his quota. He added 12 points to my IQ. Twelve points to make the minimum."

I looked at him, slightly shocked, but didn't allow that particular emotion to show on my face. I looked back at the screen, at the old picture of Aaron, or rather PFC Kenneth Kitsom.

"You ever seen a cognitive degrade?" Aaron asked.

"I told you I had. I had to kill him."

"Well, it's a hell of long way to fall." Aaron replied.

I glanced at him, and closed the lid of the laptop, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"You probably would have liked him, Doc. Kenneth Kitsom. Maybe." Aaron said, his blue eyes piercing into mine. I smiled at him, moving closer.

"Maybe. I like Aaron Cross a lot too. Even when he's shouting at me. He's quite hot when he's angry, even if I'm resisting the urge to punch him at the time." I say, making him laugh.

"Yeah, well, Eliza Taylor isn't so bad either. She's got a nice ass, a smart mouth and a pretty face. I can think of worse people to be on the run with." Aaron retorts, putting his arm around my shoulder, as I rest my head on his shoulder.

"Me too."

Aaron spends the rest of the night, forging passports, photo I.D cards and driver's licenses. I offered to help him, but there didn't seem to be much point. I was in the way. So I took out the letter from Marta from my jacket, sunk onto the double bed we had no problem sharing, and started to read Marta's manic handwriting.

Dear Lizzie,

If you're reading this, I guess I'm dead. There would be no logical reason for you to go through my safe otherwise. This means something went wrong with Outcome and they've decided to shut down the programme. I don't want their goons to snoop through my house. Burn it down. I mean it, Lizzie. Burn the soul sucker to the ground and don't look back.

We've been friends for a while now and I know that your training has made it hard for you to like people, to get close to people, to feel normal human emotion, but you made an exception for me. Now this is a dead woman's last wish in the best interests of her closest and greatest friend…I want you to make another exception. You'll be on the run for sometime, I imagine, but I don't want you to be lonely. I want you to let someone in, but not in the way you let me in, but in a deeper way. Something more meaningful, more lasting than a friendship. Fuck the consequences. All we ever cared about was thinking things through, being logical. Don't think, Lizzie. Act. I know you're good at it. Just for once, switch off the logical side of your brain that tells you that you can't do something, you shouldn't do something, and do it. For me.

I left my spare I.D badge, my gun, and all the documents in the safe too. One more thing I want you to do for me….stay safe.

Love,

Marta.

P.S the first time I ever met Agent Number Five he asked about the cute blonde doctor. If he's not dead, look him up. He's an arrogant bastard from what I can tell, but at least he's handsome.

I let out a harsh-sounding laugh, causing Aaron to look up from his work to look at me curiously. I read him the last part of what Marta had written, making him snort in amusement.

"She's not wrong." I commented.

"You think I'm handsome?" Aaron asked, his grey eyes twinkling.

"I've got eyes, Cross, but I was actually referring to the 'arrogant bastard' part. Marta hit the nail really accurately on the head with that one, didn't she?" I joked, grinning over at him.

"If knowing you're the best at what you do makes you arrogant then I guess I am." Aaron retorted, laughing when he saw me glare at him furiously.

"Babe, if you were the best, they wouldn't have made me. I could kick your arse into next week blindfolded and handcuffed." I protested, only slightly exaggerating my skill. I could technically do that, if my opponent was the average cop or maybe even a special agent from the FBI or an army serviceman. Taking on Aaron, however, I would definitely need the blessed gift of sight and the availability of all my limbs.

Aaron was quiet for a long time, and he just stared at me. Just stared with this heated look in his eyes that I'd seen in plenty of men's eyes when they'd look me over.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm picturing you in handcuffs. It's a beautiful image." Aaron replied, deadpanning, which made me believe him even more. He was that dirty, and somehow his perverted mind made me like him even more, made me even bolder with my own words.

"Maybe for your birthday, stud." I grinned at him as his face lit up, an amused grin tugging on his lips and his stormy grey eyes flashing with a barely concealed desire. We would continue to play this game, this tug of war, until one of us gave in and made a move that would complicate things more than necessary, but would make things easier at the same time.

"Today is my birthday. And so is tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day." Aaron joked.

"That sounds like an awful amount of chafing to my wrists, if I'm honest, and I'm not going to be your sex slave, darling. I'm all up for a kinky bedroom game, but I'm still a lady, you know."

I stared at Aaron with a serious expression, and he returned with the same, until simultaneously our faces softened, our bodies started shaking and our mouths exploded with ridiculous laughter. Aaron was a great companion, I decided, and maybe…when things are less fucked up and we aren't planning schemes and missions…things could develop into something more, but things are still as fucked up as ever and even when we were laughing and joking both of us were running several plans through our heads, despite ourselves.

"I've never met a girl like you before." Aaron finally replied, after we'd both managed to calm ourselves down.

"That was a good song." I replied, tucking Marta's letter back into its envelope and placing it onto the end table beside the bed, before flopping backwards, and staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah, music isn't really my thing."

"Music used to be what kept me sane. Music, sex, Kool Aid, science, working out, and jello shots. I was a woman of simple pleasures, but I was content." I said, though the little reveal wasn't exactly necessary or wanted by either of us. It was a slip.

"What about now?" Aaron questioned.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you just content now?"

I thought his question over for a second, pondering my answer.

"I'd say, excluding the death of a close friend, I am happy. You said you'd never met anyone in the programme before. Well I had, obviously, but I've never had the acceptance that we have for each other. I've only ever been content, because no one has ever truly understood me. Until you. We get each other. I'd rather be on the run with you for the rest of my life, where you'd understand and accept me for who I am, then be safe and sound in some stylish apartment in New York or London with some guy that didn't understand me…you know?"

"I understand what you're saying." Aaron replied.

"I thought you might."

"Boarding pass and ID, please."

I stepped up to the desk, a warm smile on my face, my eyes slightly wider than usual behind my slim frame glasses (Aaron and I decided these would be a good part of my disguise) and my purse, my passport and boarding pass in my hand.

I handed the required items over to the woman behind the desk, open, ready for her to inspect them. She held my passport up slightly, her eyes flicking between the passport and me. She smiled at me once she was done, passing them back and letting me through.

I didn't look back to find Aaron as I walked through into the waiting area. I just walked with a small smile on my face, which widened slightly if someone tried to catch the (and I quote) beautiful-blonde-model-with-the-great-ass-and-legs-that-could-go-on-forever's gaze.

I found myself a seat at a table in the passenger's lounge, and had my cell phone in front of me. It was a disposable one, some cheap piece of crap. I was waiting for Aaron to call me. And just as I thought that he was trying to make me sweat it out, the phone rang. I flipped it open, and pressed the answer button.

"Where are you, darling?" I asked, adding the pet name in case someone overheard.

"I'm right behind you, sweetheart. Don't turn around."

"As if I would." I replied.

"Stay right there until it's time to board, okay? You see that corridor on your right?" I turned my head slightly to the right to look. "You're gonna want to find someone who's walking that way and just tag along."

"Sweetie, this is not my first time." I said, with a smile.

"Babe, would you just listen to me?" Aaron said, still playing along with my charade. "Keep moving, keep your head down and I'll see you on the plane."

"Okay, darling, see you soon." I replied.

"Bye, beautiful." The line cut dead after that.

"That arse." I said to myself, with a chuckle.

I'd boarded the plane, and was finding my seat, but when I looked up I saw Aaron looking around nervously, until our eyes locked, then I saw his chest expand and restrict with his subtle sigh of relief. I broke our gaze, and sat down.

And thus began the boring flight to Manila.

It was an overnight flight, which meant most people ended up sleeping. The man next to me slept, but I was too wired to sleep. Too many things could go wrong. Aaron trusted me to inject him with a live virus that may or may not kill him. I mean I didn't die, but that's because I had a team of doctors looking after me, because when they found me I was on the brink of death. Outcome wouldn't let their best asset die, so I was saved, and then welcomed back like the prodigal son…or daughter, in my case.

I was just one person. I couldn't guarantee that I could keep Aaron alive. He'd become a liability, and if someone came after us, if someone find out that we were still alive, then I'm not sure I could protect us both. One of us would die, and it would most likely be him.

I approached the foreign passports gate, and slipped my passport under the window to the man behind the glass. I smiled and waited patiently as he inspected it.

I looked up for a brief second and shared a glance with Aaron as he walked past, before giving my attention back to the Filipino, who was inspecting me and my passport.

He hesitated for a second…it looked like he had hesitated, but then stamped my passport, handed it back to me, and let me through. I'd have to compliment Aaron on his forgery skills later, if I remember.

I smiled as I walked through and out of the airport, my backpack on my shoulder. I was wearing a dark blazer now instead of my leather jacket, a dark t-shirt underneath that, and black skinny jeans and my military boots. Hopefully the security guards would remember my face, and remember my visit eight months ago, and we'd get through easily.

I met Aaron outside, and hailed a taxi.

Neither of us spoke, while the cab driver put our bags in the trunk of his car. Aaron paid up front, and gave the man the address of the factory, and then we were once again on the move.

Aaron glanced over at me, and I returned his gaze, neither of us saying anything at first.

"We're almost there." I said.

Aaron just nodded, and took my hand, squeezing it, but didn't let it go while he stared out of his window through out most of the car journey.

It didn't take long to get there, so when the driver pulled over, and Aaron got out, I only knew we'd arrived by the fact his hand is no longer in mine. It jerked me to a different state of awareness, and I climbed out, my feet hitting the sidewalk, and I walked forward a little. Aaron grabbed our bags out of the trunk, and handed me mine. I swung it over my shoulder and glanced at him a second, before looking away just as quickly.

"I don't know the rules." I said, my eyes still forward. Aaron hands me the fake pass he made on the plane, and I clip it to my shirt. Marta's spare is in the pocket of my jeans.

"There are no rules. We belong here. Come on." Aaron said, taking my hand, and pulling me forward. I rolled my eyes as we approached the gate and the guards, especially as Aaron greeted each guard he saw.

"Good evening. Dr. Taylor and I are here to open up the lab, please." Aaron said, sliding his pass in front of the guard.

The guard turned around, and beckoned another guard over. He looked oddly familiar.

"What's all this?" He said.

Aaron looked around the guard in front of him, a calm smile on his face.

"Hi, how are you?" Aaron greeted politely. I almost laughed as the guard completely ignored him as he noticed me.

"Dr. Taylor! Dr. Taylor," He said, as he walked out of the gate, and towards us. I smiled at him, but still couldn't place a name to his face. "Hey, it's me, Joseph."

"Joseph! How are you?" I asked, as realisation hit me. Aaron looked at me, a bit puzzled, as if questioning when I'd ever been here.

"I'm good, I'm good. Welcome back!" Joseph said, happily.

"Thanks." I grinned a genuine smile for the man.

"I'm sorry. I just don't have you on my list arriving." He said.

"Oh, that's because we had to change our schedule." I lied easily.

"Yeah, we took an earlier flight. Joseph, I'm Dr. Brundage, by the way. It's nice to meet you." Aaron said, with a warm smile, as he introduced himself. Aaron is a great actor.

"Please to meet you, too, but Dr. Pumaloy is not here, he went to Singapore. He just left yesterday," Joseph told us. "The girls have gone home. No one told me anything."

"Ah, right. Well, I understand. Well, look, we're going to be here all week, and we have a lot of work to do, so we need to get in there tonight and get things started, okay?" Aaron said.

"Yeah, of course. It's just that…"

"You can call Dr. Pumaloy if you want, Joseph, I just don't want to put you on the spot." I said, resting my hand on his forearm in a comforting, understanding gesture, as I did my best slow smile, and looked up at him through my dark lashes.

"We don't have to do that, Dr. Taylor, it's just the two of you?" Joseph asked, still looking slightly unsure, but more than willing to help me out. Aaron looked at me weirdly, probably because I was using my feminine wiles to get my way.

"Yeah. It would have just been me, but my boss hates when I travel alone. You know me, Joseph, I get into a lot of trouble if left unsupervised by a competent male authority figure. Hence, my colleague accompanying me." Yes, I had stooped to subtle flirting.

Joseph smiled at me, and gestured at me to follow him. I turned and smiled smugly at Aaron, who shot me a frown in return.

We walked through the factory…well above the factory. The walkway we were using allowed us to witness all the pills being sorted below us. They were for various projects, but I'd only worked on Outcome and a little on Larx, so I didn't know what they were for.

Aaron was behind me as I strolled down the familiar path to the elevator that would take us down to the guest labs. I swiped Marta's card to open the gate, and watched it open. I stepped through, glancing behind me to make sure Aaron was following me, but he wasn't. He was staring at something.

"Aaron?" I called quietly. He seemed to snap out of it really quickly, and fell into step behind me. I swiped the card on the elevator door, and looked back at Aaron as it opened, before stepping into it.

Aaron followed suit, but I could tell that he needed something to concentrate on, so with a grin, I turned to him.

"Want to know a secret?"

Aaron raised an eyebrow at me, but nodded regardless.

"I've had sex in this elevator. Let that occupy your mind for a while." I grinned.

"Is that true?" Aaron asked.

"You figure out if I'm lying or not."

Aaron stayed quiet, probably thinking about it. I nudged him in the ribs as the elevator doors opened again, pulling him away from his obviously perverted thoughts about me, considering the smirk on his face, and gestured at him to follow me again.

I walked down a drab, familiar hallway and swiped my card on the security scanner to lab C. I closed the door behind us, with a sigh, and then stood by Aaron's side.

"So this is it, huh?" Aaron quipped.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Okay." Aaron said, as he shrugged off his jacket.

I looked at him, and sighed, knowing there was nothing I could say to put him off of this, so went to start my prep work. I collected the necessary equipment, like a needle, a tourniquet, cotton ball to stop the tiny amount of blood flow, and the real virus. But before I injected him with something that could potentially end Aaron's life, I was going to check the incision I'd made days ago on his lower abdomen. Anything to waste time.

I walked back to Aaron, and he was sitting on a bed, shirt off, tourniquet around his upper arm. He was waiting to be injected. My eyes took him in. I'd not had much chance to check him out properly before. Too busy doing agent things. But now I was really looking…the guy was cut, as the Yanks say.

"Guess I don't need to check that cut I gave you." I murmured, shaking my head, as I moved over to the small vial of virus. I pushed the needle into it, and pulled the plunger up, so the needle was ready to go. With a sigh, I dropped to my knees in front of Aaron, needle in hand, my spare resting on Aaron's waiting arm.

I gazed up at him, looking for a bit of confidence.

Aaron smiled down at me, and covered my hand with his.

"Thank you." He whispered.

He said it so reverently, so sincerely that I finally believed that this is what he truly wanted. So I sucked it up, and plunged the needle into his arm.


	4. I'm glad I'm lost with you, Number Six

**3rd Person POV**

Ric Byer knew that someone had killed the team that went to scope Dr. Shearing's house. It was a routine check to see if anyone had taken anything from the lab. They'd lost contact with the team, the back-up went up to the house to find it up in flames. Alarm bells started to ring in Byer's head, so he ran with his gut feeling and tracked the shadow of a car somewhere. That's when they saw her.

Dr. Eliza Taylor, Number Six, was taking her passport picture at a small store. They didn't know how she was still alive, or what she was doing. All they knew was they had to track her down and finish their job. She was the reason that LARX had such good scores. They had perfected the Outcome chems with her, made the best super-soldier with only one flaw - a conscience. That had been corrected in LARX, thanks to her old work. But she was too good at what she did even with the emotions that clouded her judgement. They had to put her down. For good.

They got all the passenger manifest from all airports. His team told him that she was most likely going to go to Manila, the Philippines. Then they found Aaron Cross, Outcome 5, or Dr. Karl Brundage as he was going by, on the passenger manifest to Manila too. Eric Byer never allowed himself to panic, but that moment was an exception. The two best agents in Outcome were working together. She was helping him viral out on the blues like she had done eight months ago. If they didn't act soon, they'd disappear.

**Eliza's POV**

I'd put everything away, and was sorting through some files, when three guards walked into the lab.

"Hello? Can I help you?" I asked.

"Are you alone down here?" One asked.

"Aaron?" I called, and immediately he appeared. As soon as my eyes lapsed on him, I felt a little more secure, and only slightly disappointed. He'd put his shirt back on.

"Hey, hey, hey, guys. You can't be down here. Do you even have clearance for this level?" Aaron asked, as he walked towards us. He stopped because they walked towards him a couple of paces. For anyone else, it would have been slightly intimidating…for me and Aaron? I was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"No one's supposed to be down here."

"We're supposed to be down here. I'm Dr. Taylor. I work-" I started, but Aaron cut me off, obviously wanting to get them out of here more quickly and urgently than I did.

"We're in the middle of a sampling audit. It's not safe for you guys to be here." Aaron said, slightly more forceful.

"Let's straighten this out upstairs." The third guard said.

"Hey, don't touch that." Aaron snapped at the second guard, who'd yet to speak, but was about to touch my jacket.

"Pack it up, let's go." The first guard instructed.

"Look, nobody touch anything." I ordered, my hands on my hips, as I waited for a physical gesture from Aaron to start an assault.

"Come on, just follow us."

"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. I'm going to call your boss and we're going to figure it out." Aaron said, turning round with his hands slightly in the air. He put two of his fingers down, which I think meant that he would take two. I rolled my eyes. Of course, he'd take two.

"Watch her." One of them said, as he followed Aaron and Guard 1 as G1 tried to stop Aaron from walking away from him.

As soon as Guard 1 put his hand on Aaron's shoulder, I knew that was my moment to attack my own guard. He was standing behind me, so I threw my elbow back, hitting him in the throat, cutting of his air supply, and then spun round and brought my foot down hard on his knee. I heard bones crack, but that didn't stop me. He was doubled over now, and that made my attack much easier.

I grabbed him by his hair, and slammed his face down onto my knee, repeatedly, before I kicked him and sent him flying backwards.

He didn't get up, but he was still conscious, so I stomped on his face once, knocking him out straight away.

I turned around, and saw Aaron was nearly done with his two guards and had managed to gain a weapon. I knelt down by Guard 2, the guy I'd taken on, and pulled his gun from its holster, and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans. I shrugged my blazer back on, and grabbed my bag.

Aaron was done now, and turned and looked at me.

"I'm going to get my bag. We have to leave."

"They never did like it when I made a mess. Whoops." I grinned at the mess we'd made.

Instead of taking the elevator, we were hurtling ourselves up the stairs, and I was so focused on running, that I almost ran right past an exit. Aaron grabbed my arm, and pulled me back.

"Wait. This way." He said.

I looked at the door, and didn't recognise it.

"I don't know where this goes." I warned him, getting out Marta's swipe card.

"Just open it." Aaron instructed. I shot him a warning look, which basically said 'be sharp with me again, and you won't live to regret it', and slid Marta's card through the security lock, and then pushing on the door. The door buzzed, but wouldn't open. Aaron was looking up and down the stair wells, trying to be a lookout. I tried the card again, but got the same result.

"Fuck." I whispered,

"Step back." Aaron ordered, and I did as I was told for a change, thankfully, as he swung this great big pipe wrench at the door where my body had been, twice, before kicking the door in. He ran through it first, and I dutifully followed.

I kept up with him as we ran through the dark passageways that I'd never ventured to during my time of actually working here. We eventually made it to another door.

"We belong here." Aaron reminded me, before opening it, and walking through, a slight smile on both of our faces, as we danced through the workers and their machines. Aaron had to lift up some moveable conveyer belt systems for us to walk through.

I grinned when I saw him pull out his stolen gun, and watched with glee as he shot two pipes that immediately started smoking. The workers freaked out as he'd anticipated and all began to form a giant, moving mass that headed to the entrance. Then he shot a control box, which made all the machines shut down and an alarm to start ringing. That virus was clearly already doing wonders for his intelligence.

Aaron grabbed my hand as we jogged to keep up with the mostly scared, squealing women who were almost running, in some cases.

We hid ourselves in the large mass that had developed outside, waiting for the man in charge to come barrelling out. Cut off the head and the body will stop squirming. He was barking orders into his radio, when Aaron hit him on the back of the head, knocking him out quickly.

I leant down, and took his watch, while pretending to take his pulse. Aaron cleared people away. I stood up, and waved some guards over as Aaron took my hand once more and led us away and out onto the street.

We'd been walking for about ten minutes, when I decided the silence was getting to me.

"That was close, right?" I said, my lame attempt at being light.

Aaron looked at me, then rolled his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" I questioned, seeing the shine of sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"It's starting to kick in." Aaron half-answered. I knew he was doing a lot worse. He was starting to burn up, (I could feel it on my hand, which he was gripping more tightly now) and shake as though he was cold.

I nodded, and then craned my head, spotting a shabby hotel, which I then dragged him towards. I left him outside, clutching his bag, next to a crowded bar or something. Either way he wasn't the most shifty looking guy standing there.

I quickly spoke to the woman who owned the hotel, explaining in Tagolog that my friend was ill and we needed a place to stay for the night. It took some convincing but when I handed her a handful of U.S dollars, she was only too helpful.

I hurried back to Aaron, who looked like he was hallucinating or daydreaming about something and that worried me. That was like Stage 2 of the virus.

"They have a room," I said, grabbing hold of his arm, managing to grab his attention too. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I think so." Aaron replied, though he looked unsure. I grabbed his bag, letting it hang off my arm, but its straps, and then pulled his arm over my shoulders, and pulled his body into mine, bearing some of his weight to make it easier for him.

We ended up with me practically cuddling him, as I helped him through the street, and then up the flight of stairs that led to the hotel. The woman looked at us with barely veiled suspicion, but I ignored it for now, and carried on half-dragging Aaron to the room we'd be staying in.

I'd gotten Aaron to bed. I'd taken his shirt off, and helped him take his jeans off, and then I'd gone out and bought a dozen bottles of cold water, before rushing back to him.

I sat on a stool by his bedside, and drenched a wet rag in the cold water, before wiping it gently across his forehead. Aaron kept grumbling, groaning and grunting in his fever-induced hysteria. I knew he was probably reliving a moment of his past, so I kept hushing him, and running my fingers through his damp hair.

"Okay, just lie still." I told him, as he tried to get up, and I pushed him back down, but he moved to sit up again anyway.

He grabbed hold of my hand, using it to help him steady himself as he tried to sit up.

"Aaron, you have…Aaron, lay down. Please. Just lie still," I was almost begging him. He was overexerting himself, and he was useless to me dead. That and I needed him for other reasons. Aaron had quickly become someone I could depend on. I wasn't used to being dependent on anything, let alone another person, but with him, I felt safe, which I knew was ridiculous. "What?"

I held him upright by his shoulder with one hand, wiping his face with the rag with my other, while I waited for him to say whatever it was he felt he needed to.

"There's $40,000 in the lining of my jacket. In this bag, there are passports," I looked at him, horror taking over my face. What was he asking me to do? Run? Leave him here to die and save myself? "Two blanks and three ghosts, there's that guy's watch. There are other things, okay? You take it."

I didn't meet his gaze, I just dragged the wet rag across his chest, mopping up the beads of sweat that were dripping down.

"Look at me," Aaron ordered me and I looked up reluctantly. There were tears in my eyes. I wasn't used to this much emotion. I couldn't believe he was asking me to leave him. "You can make it. You're a warrior. You can make it. Okay? Stay small. No airports. Just blend in like you know, okay?"

"Ssh, Aaron. Ssh." I hushed him, wiping his forehead and resisting the urge to lean forward and kiss him. He was a good man, and for once in my life, I was being put first. It was heartbreaking.

"You've done enough for me," Aaron whispered, and I pulled his head into my chest, cradling it as I hushed him. "Please go. You've done enough for me."

I pressed my lips to his hair, running my fingers though it at the same time. I let one tear fall from my eyes, before I stopped the rest. Aaron needed me to be strong. So I would be. I kissed Aaron's hair once more, then gently pushed him onto his back. I thought he was asleep so I went to move, but Aaron's hand gripped my wrist. His grip was still strong, despite the virus.

"Don't go." Aaron croaked.

"You're giving me whiplash, Cross. One minute you're telling me to go, the next you want me to stay…how's a girl supposed to keep up, babe?" I questioned lightly, a small smile playing on my lips as I looked down at him.

"Don't leave yet." Aaron amended. I frowned.

"I'm not leaving anyway. You're too weak to force me, and I'm not heartless enough to leave you here defenceless. This is going to sound all mushy, but you're all I've got now, Aaron. I'm sticking around until you get bored of my hot body…though I don't see that happening, babe."

"Me neither." Aaron whispered, making me chuckle.

"Rest up, Action Man. I need you in good condition, 'cause as soon as you're over this, as soon as we get off grid, I've got some plans for us. And you'll need to be healthy in order to participate properly." I whispered in his ear, kissing just underneath it. He wouldn't remember this anyway. If he does, he'll put it down to hallucinations brought on by the fever.

"If what you're thinking is what I'm thinking…I'm looking forward to it." Aaron whispered again, before he finally gave into sleep. I grinned. When I was certain that he was unconscious, I leaned down and pressed my mouth against his quickly. I put the damp cloth on his forehead, leaving it there, and moved my seat right next to his bed.

I don't know when I fell asleep that night, but I remember watching the soft rise and fall of Aaron's chest before things got dark.

When I woke the next morning, I washed myself and tended to Aaron, wiping away the sweat from his body and soaking the rag again in water to keep his temperature down. His fever wasn't as bad as it was the last time I woke up to check on him. He'd probably be able to walk around if necessary. Not that I was planning on moving him very far today. Not if I could help it. I change my clothes, exchanging the blazer, shirt, pants and ballet flats I was wearing yesterday for a clean white tank top, a soft, grey hooded jacket, a pair of black jeans and my trusty, black combat boots. I wasn't Dr. Eliza Taylor now. I was back to being Agent Eliza Taylor. Or Number Six. Whatever they referred to me as. Glancing at Aaron, I quickly scribbled a note on a piece of scrap paper I'd found while hunting around the small room. I placed it on my chair, planted a kiss on his cheek, before swinging my backpack onto my shoulder. I wouldn't leave my guns. I could need them. They clearly knew where we were yesterday. That Aaron and I were still alive, and messing their plans up by being so. They would hunt us now. Follow us until they finished what they started, but I think as long as Aaron and I are together we'll be fine. For now.

Finding a place that sold the medicine Aaron needed wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Seeing as my tagolog was rusty, actually getting the medicine was harder. Although even that was easier than anticipated. Thankfully the woman I found who sold prescription medication spoke a little English.

"Paracetemol. 500 milligrams. 4 times a day." The woman instructed.

"Okay, yeah." I said, my eyes on the small bag of pills in her hand, while she continued speaking in Tagolog.

"For free. This is free." She said, waving the paracetemol bag towards me.

"Great…" I replied, before I noticed several local cops running towards something. Instantly, my agent senses kicked in, and I knew something was wrong. When I noticed the route they took was the one that led to the motel that Aaron was currently unconscious in. The woman was staring at me, confusion on her face.  
"I'll be right back."

I probably wouldn't be, I thought, as I followed a straggling cop, keeping out of sight, my hands itching to grab one of my guns. They had the place cordoned off and surrounded. Just at the back of the motel I counted four policemen. Fuck. I didn't know if Aaron was still out for the count, or if he was getting dressed or in the shower or what. I stalked closer, trying to get a better view of what was about to go down, when I saw the SWAT team. I knew that the American government had to have sent these guys after us. Eric Byer and his crack team knew where we were.

Adrenalin coursed through my veins. The agent in me wanted to turn and get myself to safety. Number Six was saying fuck Aaron, he's a liability and you need to live. Eliza Taylor, however, was saying that Aaron needed to be warned. Needless to say, she's the side of myself I listened to.

"Aaron, run!" I shouted as loud as I could, before I turned and ran, making sure that I was leading some of them away from him.

I ran through the crowded back-end streets of Manila, not looking back once. I wasn't running as fast as I could do. If I did, the police would lose my trail and go back to hunting Aaron. I needed to keep them on my tail, so I forced my body to slow down although it itched for me to sprint as fast as I could. My feet pounded against the pavement, and my arms pumped through the air. I barely registered the curious locals around me, staring at me as I flew past. I just kept running. I found myself running around a marketplace, listening to a police whistle behind me. If Aaron had managed to get out, then he'd be following me. I grinned as I sped up, managing to lose the men following me quite quickly.

I ducked into an open doorway, pressed myself against a wall out of sight, and counted how many police were actually following me. Three men ran past. Three? Well…I could deal with those on my own. I swung my bag off my back, and grabbed my gun, slipping it into the waistband of my jeans.

That's when I noticed the kid watching cartoons. I held a finger against my lips, gesturing for her to stay quiet. Her mother walked into the house, closing the front door behind her, and spotted me. She instantly started shouting. I inwardly thanked the woman, as her shouting would attract the cops back to me. I sprinted out the back of the house, and kept running. It was slightly more difficult as there was less room to manoeuvre, but I kept moving forward.

I have to hand it to the police of Manila. They weren't dumb. I was running down a narrow alleyway, when a cop appeared in front of me, another behind me. I smirked, holding my hands either side of my head in fake surrender. They moved closer to me, which was their first mistake. My smirk turned into a full-blown grin, which confused the guy in front of me.

Not for long though. I sent my fist careening towards his nose, hearing a satisfying crunch, then kicked out backwards, nailing the guy behind me. Forgetting their weapons, both men attempted to restrain me. Placing my hands on either side of his face, I head butted the first cop, kneeing him his private area, which sent him to the ground. I spun round to face the other guy, crouching slightly to punch the side of his knee, effectively breaking it. With him on the ground, I finally pulled my gun from my waistband and shot the first cop as he tried to get his own weapon out. He stumbled back, but still tried to lift his Glock 26 towards me. I fired two more shots, and he wheezed as he collapsed. I was about to turn around and kill the other, when he was suddenly on the ground with a broken neck. My DNA-altered knight in shining armour checked his pulse. Aaron stepped away from him, turning his eyes on me.

"Hey hot stuff!" I greeted with a grin. "Nice of you to drop in."

Aaron grinned.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah," Aaron replied, holding out his hand to me. "C'mon."

I grabbed his hand, a smile playing on my lips as he dragged me out of the alleyway and onto the busy street. We walked with our heads slightly raised. Walking with your head down gets more attention than walking like you own the place. It was a busy street, people were all over the place, so the only reason someone would notice us is if they had our mug shots.

Aaron decided to follow a crowd of people, and they led us across a bridge. I kept scanning the area, noticing that Aaron was doing the same, as we crossed the bridge. And all at once everything seemed to go to hell again. I heard the police sirens, pulled Aaron backwards, moving against the crowd. Aaron looked up and drew my attention towards a guy on the roof. He was an agent. Must be LARX. We were so fucked. Aaron bumped into a woman, and sent her shopping tumbling to the ground, causing a distraction that allowed us to duck. We watched as the guy launched himself into the air towards some scaffolding that was close to us. Aaron looked over the side of the bridge, and I suddenly found myself being lifted over it.

Aaron climbed over with me and we jumped onto the roof of a white coach, ignoring the screams of women that thought we were trying to commit group suicide or something. We moved quickly, climbing down using another truck to get closer to the ground, before we hit the road and began running again. We ran forward until Aaron pulled his bag off his back and handed it to me.

"Take this, and keep walking forward. Go." Aaron ordered, and I rolled my eyes, but walked in the direction he told me to, suddenly wishing we weren't on the run so I could kick his arse for treating me like the sidekick. He's only alive because I saved his arse. Twice.

I swung his bag onto my back, over my own, and kept my eyes forward. Until I heard a motorcycle coming up to my side, and my back went up, and I reached for the gun in my waistband. I turned my head, and saw it was Aaron and relaxed. If it weren't such a tense situation, and I wasn't in my agent mode, I probably would have made a comment about the bike and ass-less chaps, but it wasn't the time or place.

"Hey! Hey! Get on!" Aaron said, as he came to a stop. I ran to him, and swung my leg over the machine, and settled myself down. "You ever ridden before?"

"Yeah." I replied, again holding back more time-inappropriate comments that otherwise would have made him smirk. He hands me the helmet, but I toss it away from me. It would get in my way. We simultaneously slipped on our sunglasses, and even though I knew he was slightly irritated by my refusal of the helmet, he gave me a quick smile.

"Hold on tight, and stay with me." Aaron said, as he revved the engine.

"As if I'd go anyway else." I shouted above the engine. I wrapped my arms around his middle, making sure I wouldn't fall off, as the bike shot forwards. Instantly I wished I'd put the helmet on, as my hair was blown back. I know that this was the wrong situation to start complaining about high speeds affecting my hair, but I'm still a girl.

We sped down a busy road, underneath a highway. Aaron expertly wove in between traffic, much to the annoyance of the other road users. The police were on our tail, I could hear the sirens following behind us. I resisted the urge to shoot the idiot who cut in front of us, forcing Aaron to swerve out of the way and nearly killing me.

I wouldn't have to wait long to shoot at someone though. The LARX agent had stolen a police car and was tailing us.

"Our stalker has a gun!" I shouted at Aaron, as a warning.

Aaron glanced back briefly, before he squeezed the breaks, so we had cover via a colourful bus.

"Keep your head down." Aaron ordered me, and I smiled. It was touching how he cared. Probably without realising.

Aaron accelerates, manoeuvring the bike so he was driving between the bus and a stone block. I winced the whole time, hoping Aaron wouldn't get us crushed. Aaron pounded his fist along the side and the driver moved over slightly to give us enough room to speed out.

Aaron kept the whole 'hide behind bigger vehicles' thing up, until the LARX agent decided to play dirty. He must've gotten closer, because all of a sudden the small minibus we were using as cover started to bump us. He was driving into them. I held on tighter to Aaron, so I didn't fall and get turned into an Eliza pancake, and Aaron kept an expert control over the bike. The back end of the bus was being forced against the wall, until it suddenly spun around, breaking our cover.

I turned my head, watching as the agent kept smashing into the fender of this innocent man, forcing him out of the road, and crashing. Aaron stopped a moment, to see if he would get out of his stolen car. Which, of course, he did. Aaron swerved the bike round, and drove it up a car, and a barrier, and then into incoming traffic.

We were speeding down another road, and I knew that LARX wouldn't give up. I also could hear police sirens. Aaron heard them too, because he turned off the main road and drove even faster. I was twitching now, feeling useless, as Aaron drove the bike up a set of stairs bringing us to a overpass. I needed to do something. I was feeling utterly useless. Police cars halted traffic and behind us the bad guy was getting nearer. Aaron looked for the escape routes and, just like I did, realised the only way to get out of this situation was forwards. Aaron accelerated and drove straight across the overpass. He had to stop for pedestrians to move out of the way, but then he used a stone banister to slide down the staircase. I was surprised that the bike still worked afterwards with the way we had grinded the underside of it.

I glanced back as Aaron turned into another crowded road and saw how close the agent was to us. He was an average car length behind. Aaron continued zooming forwards in between the two lanes, before he braked hard to cut in between two cars that were about to close the space in between them. We had turned into a marketplace and Aaron didn't stop to see if we were still being followed. He just threw a left, and carried on.

The LARX agent must've sped forward to cut us off, because the next thing I hear is gunfire. He opened fire in the middle of a marketplace full of people. They must've perfected my rough equations and removed the emotional part of his brain. I heard Aaron grunt and looked down at his leg. Instantly, Dr. Eliza Taylor was there. I let go of Aaron's waist with one hand, and reached forward to keep pressure on the wound that appeared.

"What are you doing?" Aaron yelled at me.

"Keeping you from bleeding out on me." I shouted back, over the revving engine of the motorcycle.

Aaron braked and the bike skidded until he had pulled it around. I knew what he was thinking, so let go of his leg and pulled out the gun tucked into the waistband of my jeans. My hand was a little slick with blood, but this wasn't unusual. I'd gotten used to holding a gun in a hand that was slippery with blood. Aaron also pulled out his gun, and as soon as the LARX agent was in sight, we both fired twice. One of us must've hit him, because we sent him careening towards a fruit stall. Aaron turned another left, groaning and dropping his gun as he did so. I clicked on the safety of my gun, returning it to the waistband of my jeans, before pressing my hand back down on Aaron's thigh. It was bleeding more heavily.

"It's getting worse." I said, leaning forward to talk into Aaron's ear.

"It's fine!" He replied.

"Pull over! Pull over!" I ordered him.

"We just need to get to the river!" Aaron shouted.

I shook my head, pressing my face into his shoulder. He dropped his left hand on top of mine, trying to reassure me while his blood streamed through my fingers.

Aaron was starting to lag. His shoulders were hunched, and I knew he was getting tired. I wanted him to pull over, tie his leg off with a tourniquet and I'd drive while he held onto me instead. Yet that was impossible.

I glanced back as I heard a motorbike engine behind us. A beaten, bruised and bloodied version of the LARX agent was on our six.

"We got company on our six, Cross."

Aaron glanced back, and on confirmation of my words, turned the throttle down hard, speeding up. Unfortunately, because of his condition, it wasn't as fast as the bike could go, and the agent following us sped up and started to close the gap between us.

Aaron turned left (and I secretly started to think that Aaron had a thing for going left) and looked behind us once, before braking to drift to the right. We entered a ship yard. I pulled out my gun, not realising the guy was close enough to knock it out of my hand. Which he did. The bastard. Aaron was falling unconscious and I knew I couldn't reach the spare gun in my boot quickly enough. So I let basic primal instincts kick in so I lifted my foot up and kicked the body of the LARX agent's bike, moving it off course. He crashed into a cement pillar, sending both bike and man into the air. He was definitely dead.

Now I concentrated on not being smushed against a different wall.

"Cross!" I shouted, pulling us off the bike. Machine and human alike skidded across the cold, concrete floor. I felt my leg being dislocated as we suddenly stopped. I pulled myself up, breathing through clenched teeth.

I looked down at Aaron, who was twisting and turning around before settling on his back, and asked him if he was okay.

Aaron nodded in reply, lifting his hand to hold mine. I grasped it, pressing my cracked lips to it.

"Are you okay?" I asked again. Aaron still nodded. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He whispered.

I kissed his hand again, wincing as I sat up straight again, and looked up. My heart stopped. My eyes locked with a young boy's. His father soon appeared and walked towards us, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open in shock.

"Can you help us?" I questioned, staring up at him and hating that we were so weak and vulnerable right now. His eyes went over my head, probably taking in the destruction of the deceased LARX agent and his totalled bike. I gripped Aaron's hand tighter. "Please. I can pay you." I spoke the last in my rusty Tagolog.

That seemed to convince him, and he nodded, waving to his friend or brother or whatever. The other man jogged over and moved to help me up, but I gestured to Aaron, who still had a superman strong grip on my hand. He helped me stand, and then he and the fisherman carried Aaron onto the boat, while the son helped me follow them.

Finally we seemed to be getting some help from someone.

I smile as I watch Aaron interact with the fisherman's son. The kid hero-worshipped Aaron, running errands for him while he sat at a wooden table, pouring over maps. I readjusted the shirt, borrowed from the fisherman, retying the ends so that my stomach was exposed. It was hotter today, and Aaron looked like he was feeling the heat too. He was (thank the Lord if he truly existed) shirtless. I walked over to him, sitting down in the free chair. I rested my arms on the table and smiled at him as he did the same.

"Hey." Aaron greeted, looking up from his new map, his eyes trailing down to my toned stomach before he took in my smirk and glanced back down at his map.

"Hey," I said, pretty much staring at his face. He looked at peace for the first time. I dropped my eyes to the map. "Are we lost, Captain?"

The corner of Aaron's mouth tilted up at my joke, before he answered.

"No. Just looking at our options."

I nodded, before I shrugged my shoulders.

"I was kind of hoping we were lost."

I smiled at the grin that formed on Aaron's mouth, and he nodded. He rolled the map back up, and turned his attention to me. I grinned, and leaned forward.

"So now that we're lost, what do you want to do?" Aaron questioned, also leaning forward. I sighed and shrugged, taking a hold of his hand.

"I don't know what to do anymore. For now, Outcome is behind us. There is no current danger and I'm feeling very useless. I don't know what I want to do," I stared at him, and gripped his hand a little harder. "But I do know that as long as you're here…everything will be okay. I'm glad I'm lost with you, Number Five."

Aaron smiled at me, lifting our hands and pressing his soft lips to the back of mine, mirroring my action back at the harbour just after our tumble off the bike. I stared into his blue eyes, which were sparkling like the clear blue waters we were sailing across. And I knew that instead of this being the end, this was only the beginning of something. Hopefully something good.

"I'm glad I'm lost with you, Number Six."

_Dun dun dun...this is the end!_

Just kidding. More to come soon! But this is the end of the movie. Now I'm going off script and making up events. The movie, its dialogue and its characters do not belong to me, only Eliza and from now on, the plot is also mine. Hope you enjoy this guys!


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